VI. The particular manner in which Christ interposed in the redemption of the world, or his office as _Mediator_, in the largest sense, _between God and man_, is thus represented to us in the Scripture. _He is the light of the world_;[215] the revealer of the will of God in the most eminent sense. He is a propitiatory sacrifice;[216] _the Lamb of God_:[217] and, as he voluntarily offered himself up, he is styled our High Priest.[218] And, which seems of peculiar weight, he is described beforehand in the Old Testament, under the same characters of a priest, and an expiatory victim.[219] And whereas it is objected, that all this is merely by way of allusion to the sacrifices of the Mosaic law, the Apostle on the contrary affirms, that the _law was a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things_:[220] and that _the priests that offer gifts according to the law--serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount_;[221] _i.e._ the Levitical priesthood was a shadow of the priesthood of Christ; in like manner as the tabernacle made by Moses was according to that showed him in the mount. The priesthood of Christ, and the tabernacle in the mount, were the originals; of the former of which the Levitical priesthood was a type; and of the latter the tabernacle made by Moses was a copy. The doctrine of this epistle then plainly is, that the legal sacrifices were allusions to the great and final atonement to be made by the blood of Christ; and not that this was an allusion to those. Nor can any thing be more express and determinate than the following passage. _It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering_, _i.e._ of bulls and of goats, _thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo! I come to do thy will, O God. By which will we are sanctified., through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all._[222] And to add one passage more of the like kind: _Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin_; _i.e._ without bearing sin, as he did at his first coming, by being an offering for it; without having our _iniquities_ again _laid upon him_, without being any more a sin-offering:--_unto them, that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation_.[223] Nor do the inspired writers at all confine themselves to this manner of speaking concerning the satisfaction of Christ; but declare an efficacy in what he did and suffered for us, additional to and beyond mere instruction, example, and government, in great variety of expression: _That Jesus should die for that nation_, the Jews: _and not for that nation only, but